Practising gratefulness can be a great way of supporting our wellbeing - especially during challenging times. These notes will focus on what helps to fill my own bucket as we continue to navigate the C19 pandemic.

Without doubt, the current pandemic has impacted on everyone's workload in schools and across other settings and workplaces.

The sheer amount of information to process and guidelines to follow has at times been a challenge to keep on top of - especially with an evolving situation where information is subject to change.

For your interest, here is a summary of the cases we have to date:

• Confirmed cases - 17
• Of these, 12 have returned to school

• Household contacts - 31
• Of these, 18 have returned to school

Government Announcement 23/03/2022

You will be aware of yesterday's announcement regarding changes to the Traffic Light system, Vaccine Passes and some Vaccination Mandates. I will be working through how these changes might impact life at Redwood Primary School. Schools are awaiting further information for the Ministry of Health and Education following these announcements.

Please note that Canterbury has not reached peak cases yet. Our current settings still aim to protect our children, their families and our staff. It is also important that we continue to take reasonable steps to minimise disruptions to learning at our kura. The strategies that we have in place currently have been effective in minimising disruptions to learning. We will look to continue with these strategies for the time being to keep everyone safe and enable us to staff the school. Relief teachers are very difficult to find currently so our aim remains to minimise staff absence through sickness and self isolation. Once we are through this peak we will look at relaxing our settings at school.

As always, I will share any changes and updates in this space as soon as I am able.

The following is a quick list of just a few of the things I'm currently grateful for:

Our Awesome Staff: Last week at our staff meeting, I shared the whakatauki Ka mate kāinga tahi, ka ora kainga a rua - "There is more than one way to achieve an objective". Running our Learning Conferences online was yet another first for our team and I appreciate their willingness and ability to pivot to this mode of delivery. Thanks also to our parents who engaged with us for these interviews. Face to face is often the most effective means of communication, however, I hope you still found your child's conference useful.

In addition I'd like to express my thanks to Pauline and Megan in the office for their ongoing support and administration. Ron and Francis continue to do an amazing job maintaining our buildings and grounds!

We are also very fortunate to have one of the most skilled and dedicated Kaiawhina (Teacher Aide) team that I have worked with. They are just amazing at supporting our staff and learners.

Our Parent Community: I feel privileged to work with such a supportive parent community. I know that keeping on top of our frequent emails can be a challenge at times (I feel the same way keeping up with the two schools that my own boys attend), however it makes a huge difference when everyone is informed and knows what to do. 

A special thanks to parents in the Poutama team for yesterday. As you will have seen, we were unable to staff this area of the school due to staff absence and a lack of reliever availability. I asked parents who were able to keep their children home from school to do so if possible. This group of parents responded well and we were able to maintain safe ratios optimal for learning.

Going forward, it is very likely that there will be teams/ hubs within the school that we cannot adequately staff due to C19 related absence. During these times, it may be necessary to ask parents to keep children home from school. In these instances, distance learning will be provided. We will always have capacity to cater for children onsite for parents who are unable to supervise distance learning at home.

I would also like to acknowledge Amanda Lange and Heather Trumper for their amazing work in our resource room. As you may recall, we moved our resources from the now demolished library resource room to "the old Room 6". Heather and Amanda have been quietly working away sorting and tidying this new space ever since. This mahi has saved our team huge amounts to time which in turn benefits every single child as it has allowed our team to focus on teaching and learning! Amanda now has other commitments and I would like to thank her for her mahi - ngā mihi nui Amanda. We are lucky that Heather is still happy to support us in this area as she has done for many years! Heather is a past parent of Redwood School, yet she continues to "give back" - thank you Heather!

Our Reddie Learners: The reason we are all here! Another year of change, new routines and yes, more disruption and several missed opportunities already. That said our kids have been amazing this term. They have adapted to these changes and taken it all in their stride.  

One of the favourite parts of my role remains working with kids and talking about and sharing in their learning journey. I enjoy a steady stream of students coming my way to celebrate their achievements - big or small.

The student pictured in the main image of this article was so proud coming to show me his writing. I love his method of making a pushbike sound like a motorcycle!

Yesterday's treat was a reading of "Jolly Roger and the Turtles" - a great tale where Jolly Roger, intent on keeping his new boots dry attempted to get from his boat to the shore by stepping on a series of stones in the water. Spoiler alert: Jolly Roger soon learned that the stones weren't stones after all!

Board of Trustees: I am forever grateful to our Board of Trustees who work hard behind the scenes providing sound governance for our kura. As the Board's Presiding Member, Sarah Caldwell continues to put in numerous hours to ensure we all moving in the right direction.

In February, the Board appointed Patrick Clemenger as a school trustee. Welcome Patrick! We look forward to working with you. In the next newsletter, Patrick will share some information about himself and what he brings to the role.

Support Networks: As a beginning principal (now 14 months into my role) having access to support networks are really important. I am lucky to have several great people and groups who I can call on for advice and support. Our local Totoranui Kahui Ako principals continue to provide great advice as does my principal mentor Sylvia Fidow (West Rolleston Primary School) and Clare Hocking from Evaluation Associates. Evaluation Associates have a contract with the Ministry of Education to provide professional development and support to first time principals such as myself. Also in the Ministry, I am grateful to Kate Collins my Education Advisor and Martin Connell, our Redevelopment Delivery Manager. I met Martin back in 2019 when I was appointed as Deputy Principal. It was clear from the beginning that Martin was committed to getting the best possible result for the Redwood Primary School community and he has worked tirelessly to achieve this with us. 

It is also important to have a support network outside of work, and hobbies that help maintain some distance from work life. In the weekend I spent the day with the gentlemen above in Craigieburn Forest Park. Much fun, pedalling, descending and banter was enjoyed, with only a few cuts and bruises sustained! Friends and family are really important and I'm so grateful for the ongoing support that my wife Katherine provides on a daily basis!

I hope that you are doing well with the challenges that come your way. I'd also encourage you to stop and consider the many aspects of life that you can be proud of and grateful for. Please follow this link to the Sparklers site which has further ideas around well being.

Ngā mihi nui and stay safe and well!

Nick Gunn | Tumuaki